By Paul Friswold May 27, 2009

In the aftermath of the Great Depression, the noir genre came into its own. Tough-talkin' broads and tougher-acting guys warred across black-and-white cityscapes where loyalty and morality were commodities; it was a slightly amplified version of the real world in which the desperation was ratcheted up a half-mile or so. Now, in the Xtreme Depression, noir's not gritty enough to capture the imagination. That's why the neo-noir movement gains new devotees daily. This is a new kind of hard-boiled, where antiheroes don't just veer slightly over the line between good and evil; they spit on it, stomp on it, set fire to it and then piss a little gasoline on the smoldering wreckage just to feel the heat from the resulting fireball. Local... More >>>